Tallis's Illustrated London: in commemoration of the Great Exhibition of ... 1851. ... With historical and descriptive letter-press, by W. G

Front matter

■ r A LLD § ■ nv.<si Wm® r-r;r-:7) IŒ.HN W . ILLUSTRATED LONDON? IN COMMEMORATION OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF ALL NATIONS IN 1851. forming a Complete <Bmfo TO THE BRITISH METROPOLIS AND ITS EN A' IRONS. ILLUSTRATED BY UPWARDS OF TWO HUNDRED STEEL ENGRAVINGS FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS AND DAGUERREOTYPES. Mits) antr Srgcrfptibe tLctter^rrsK. Bt WILLIAM GASPET, Esq. VOL. I. JOHN TALLIS AND COMPANY, LONDON AND NEW YORK. CONTENTS VOL.1.

( Sss-tf*' Page Bread Street «... 233 British Institution . . 178 Broad Street . . . .276 Brompton 198 Brook Street . . . .187 Bruton Street ... 1?0 Brydges Street . . .52 Buckingham Water Gate . . 88 Bucklersbury .... 237 Budge Row .... a\35 Bunhill Fields Cemetery . 314 Burleigh Street .... 64 Burlington Arcade . . . 154 Burlington House . . . 100 Camden Towu .... 319 Cambridge Terrace . . . 320 Cannon Street .... 238 Cannon Row . . . 116 Carlton House . . .171 Carlton Terrace . . 172 Castle Baynard . . . .240 Cavendish Square . 158 Catherine Street ... 61 Cecil Street .... 70 Chancery Lane .... 40 Chancery, Court of . . 143 Change Alley . . 283 Chapel Royal . . . .177 Charing Cross . . . .104 Bridge . . 89 Hospital . . 93 Charterhouse .... 213 Square . . 213 Cheapside 248 Chelsea 195 Hospital. . . .197 Chesterfield House . . . 186 Street . . 186 Child and Co , Bank of . .43 Churches and Chapele — St. Albans, 250; Aldgate, 289; All Hallows, Bread Street, 234 ; Page Abingdon Street 147 Academy of Music, Rojal . . 157 Adelphi . . . .82 Terrace ... 86 Admiralty . . .108 Albany 153 Albemarle Street . . . 188 Albion Hotel . . . .210 Alder-gate Street . * 208 Aldgate 289 Apsiey House . . 181 Arlington Street . . .193 Artillery Ground . .312 Arts, Society of .85 Arundel Street ... 54 Auction Mart . . . 276 Audley Street, South . 186 Austin Friars . . . ■ 276 Bank of England . . . 259 Barbican ... .211 Bartholomew Fair . . 231 Basing Lane .... 234 Ba-inghall Street . . . 253 Beaufort Buildings ... 69 Belgrave Square . . . 195 Berkeley Square . . . 184 Bethnal Green .... 306 Billinsgate 243 Bishopp-gate Street . . . 307 Blackfviars Bridge ... 36 Blackball 297 Bridge btrect, New ... 33 Board us Trade . . . .109 Bond Street . . . .189 Bow Church .... 250 Bow Street .... 64 Bride Lane .... 41 Bridewell Hospital ... 34 Bridges : — Blackfriars,36; Charing Cross, or Hungerford, 89 ; Vauxhall, 146 ; Water! o, 62 ; Westminster 118.

CONTENTS. Page All Hallows, Lombard Street, 280; All Hallows, Thames Street, 243 ; All Saints', 159 ; St. Andrew's, Undershaft, 287; St. Ann's, Soho, 152; St. Bennet's, Gracechurch, 280 ; St. Bride's, 41 ; St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, 304 ; Chapel Royal, 177 ; Christchurch, Spitalfields, 306; St. Clement's, Eastcheap, 310; St. Clement's Danes, 53; St. Dunstan's in the West, 40 ; St. Dionis Back Church, 280 ; St. Ethelburga, 302; St. George's, Hanover Square, 156; St. Giles's, Cripplegate, 212; Hanover District Chapel, 158; St. Helen's, 302; Henry the Seventh's Chapel, 129 ; St. James, Clerkenwell, 222; St. James, Piccadilly, 191 ; St. John's, Holloway, 219; St. John the Evangelist, Westminster, 145; St. Katheri.e Cree, 287; St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, 308; St. Luke's, Old Street, 309 ; St. Magnus, 298 : St. Margaret's, Lothbury, 275 ; St. Margaret's, Westminster, 135 ; St. Martin's -in -the- Fields, 97; St. Martin Outwich, 302; St. Mary, Abchurch Lane, 309 ; St. Mary Axe, 288 ; St. Man's, Islington, 218; St. Marylebone, 320; St. Mary-le-Strand, 55; St. Michael's, Cornhill, 284; St. Mildred, City, 234; St.Nicholas Church, Citv, 233 ; Old St. Pancras. 317 ; New St. Pancras, 317 ; St. Paul's Cathedral, 7 ; St. Paul's, Covent Garden, 73 ; St. Peter's, Cornhill, 285; St. Philip's Chapel, Regent pStreet, 151 ; Savoy Chapel, 68; St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, 253 ; St. Stephen's, "Walbrook,237; St. Swithin's, 238; Temple Church, 44; Tennison's Chapel, 155 ; Trinity Chapel, Conduit Street, 156; Westminster Abbey, 122.

Chapter. 3

pass, is the object to which the present publication is devoted London, ever varying in its features, ever increasing in extent, affords to the historian a theme of which the novelty can never be wholly exhausted. That Stowe, Maitland, Pennant, and other chroniclers have traced the rise and progress of this mighty city, constitutes no sufficient reason why it should not again and again be made the subject of historical research, and minute description. On the contrary, the interest of a topic recommended by the authorities just named, will be heightened by any additional elucidation of which it may be found suscep tible. Few readers will complain of satiety of detail, when the annals of a capital, which may be called the queen of cities, are submitted to them in a form hitherto unattempted, and at a price calculated to insure universal circulation.

The publishers are ambitious of rendering this work unquestionably the most profusely illustrated, the most comprehensive, and the cheapest History of London ever issued from the press. In its compilation and arrangement, the best, and fre quently exclusive, sources of information will be resorted to, and a full, faithful, and interesting record given of the metropolitan city of the empire, from the remotest periods to the present time. The stirring events of which it has been the scene — the important charters which have added to its influence — the municipal bodies that have matured its strength, and augmented its wealth — the religious, philanthropic, commercial, and learned institutions which PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. establish its social pre-eminence over other capitals — the public buildings and works of art which represent its magnificence and taste, and the worthies from whom it has received distinction — all will be perpetuated in "Talus' s Illustrated London/'' And in order to impart more effectually a correct idea of the magnitude, and the superb edifices of the British metropolis, the publishers have, at a great cost, engaged artists of eminence to furnish graphic representations of what ever is most deserving of notice in London and its tributary neighbourhoods.

The letter-press, thus aided and rendered more significant by the choicest labours of art, will impart to those unacquainted with, and residing at a distance from, London, more accurate notions of its grandeur and dimensions than has been supplied by any previous publication. In conclusion, the proprietors desire to impress ear nestly upon their friends and the pubhc, that this edition of the History of London will, both as regards the getting up and the price, merit universal patronage, and be no unworthy contribution to the Grand Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations.

Chapter I

_>. Stress is frequently laid upon the impressive signification of a particular word; perhaps there is no word more comprehensive in its character, more interesting in its development, and more indicative of the progress of national power and national industry than the dissyllable, London. The hieroglyphic inscriptions on the pyramids are said to record the territorial greatness, and the pre eminence in learning and art, for which, in ancient days, Egypt was renowned ; but what pyramid — were there no other means of communicating with posterity — would be a sufficiently expansive tablet whereon to perpetuate the wonders of London in 1850 ? London, and its suburbs, with which it is connected by outlets from every point of the compass, forms a city of stupendous magnitude, ex ceeding in extent any other capital, and containing according to the most recent estimate of the registrar-general, upwards of 270,000 houses, and 2,172,386 souls; while the facts that in 1815, its customs receipts exceeded £11,000,000; and that in 1846, there entered into its port 32,607 vessels, forming a vast total of 5,049,594 tons, establish it as the first commercial city in the world.

A trading centre to which all the products of industry, native or foreign are brought, where labour of every description finds its most remunerative and most per manent market, the residence of the court, the seat of the legislature, the hall of justice, the slirine of art, and the home of letters, London necessarily abounds in attractive features which it will be our agreeable duty to delineate. Reserving its by-gone history for subsequent researches, we shall perambulate its locabties, and avail ourselves of every possible conveyance, aquatic, atmospheric, and equestrian, to travel not merely through the town, but to those places which, though beyond its civic limits, TALLIs's ILLUSTRATED LONDON; may be considered its dependencies. We stall make shipping excursions, go over the chief manufactories, visit the docks with a tasting order, pay fees to vergers for liberty to enter St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, ascend the Monument, stroll through the exhibitions, lounge at the operas and theatres, dream of the vrtiite and red roses in the Tower, make a call on the Bank, and drop in (we hope) to the hospitalities of Guildhall and the Mansion House.

Then the parks — from Victoria, in the far east, to St. James's, famous for its palaces, and to Hyde Park, equally famous for its equipages; with Kensington Gar dens, where promenading and military orchestras consti tute the enjoyment, and the Zoological, Horticultural, VaT__-._i_.il, and other gardens, or fine-weather resorts, will pleasantly beguile our summer leisure. As loyal subjects, we cannot do less than pay our respects to Windsor Castle, not overlooking, on our way thither, Chiswick, Kew, Richmond, Hampton Court, and other picturesque situations through which the Thames, as yet unpolluted and innocent of offensive residuunis, winds its silvery course. Returning to London, we shall progress in a contrary direction, and search for relaxation in that emporium of shrimps, tea-gardens, and bathing-machines — Gravesend.

We shall make some stoppages en route, especially at Greenwich, famous as the abode of royalty in other days, and as the birth-place of Queen Elizabeth; celebrated, also, for its hospital, its park, aud that icthyo logical delicacy, which both fills the hotels and the guests — whitebait. Again, we must pause at Woolwich, a military depot and nursery, in which the genius of war seems to abide; inspect the arsenal and dockyard; and satisfy ourselves how efficiently the defences of England are maintained, and what ample provision is made against the aggressions of envious or ambitious neighbours. Re-entering the boat, we are soon transported to Graves end, especially sacred to the recreations of the Londoners, who delight, amid its rural and artificial charms, to obtain for a season a respite from the wear and tear of moneyr. a i ST. TAULS CATHEDRAL. 7 getting, and to give themselves up, unrestrainedly, to promenades on the pier, airings on the beach, climbing up the hills, descending into the valleys, and bathing in the streams of this most proximate of watering-places.

We have said enough of our intentions : it now behoves us to render them practical, and to set out forthwith upon our contemplated survey, leisurely noting what is most worthy of observation. As a starting-point, let us begin with our national cathedral, St. Paul's, which, towering above the neighbouring spires, seems, with its majestic dome, the presiding genius of London ; and, by its sacred character, to impress on the beholders, before all things, the pious supplication embodied in the city motto — '' Domine dirige nos." st. Paul's cathedral. The central site upon which this magnificent temple of religion is placed, has been, from time immemorial, appropriated to devotional purposes. The chef-d'œuvre of Sir Christopher Wren occupies the same spot upon which have arisen and disappeared several churches in the lapse of ages.

A vague tradition prevails, that a temple of Diana once stood on this eminence; but Wren refutes this idea altogether, and believes that the first church erected on this spot was a Christian one, built in the time of the Romans; and, in confirmation of his impression, states, that while seeking for the foundations for his own design, he met with those of the original semicircular chancel of the old church. They were composed of Kentish rubble-stone, elaborately worked, and united with very hard mortar, in the Roman mode, much surpassing the superstructure. This (the first) church is believed to have been destroyed during the persecution in the reign of Dioclesian : by Constantine, the friend of the Chris tians, another edifice was raised, and this met the same fate as its predecessor, at the hands of the Saxon infidels.

Again, a church to St. Paul was raised in 603, by Sebert, ; a tributary prince, under the auspices of Ethelbert, king of Kent, the first Christian king of the Saxon dynasty. Ethelbert endowed the cathedral by charter, with revenues for its maintenance, and, at the request of St. Augustine, nominated Melitus first bishop of London. Erkenwald, the son of King Offa, and fourth prelate, in succession, from Melitus, beautified and enriched the cathedral at his own cost. In 1086, when a great part of the city of London was consumed by fire, this church was burnt. Bishop Mauritius undertook the restoration of the cathedral, upon a more magnificent and extensive scale than had been hitherto attempted, and to defray the expense thereof from his own revenues. Neither Mauri tius nor his successor, De Belmeis, each of whom held the diocese for twenty years, lived to see the building com pleted, such was the grandeur of the design.

The first had the ruins of the Palatine Tower granted to him as materials for the building; and Henry I. gave to the same prelate part of the ditch belonging to the Tower, which, with the purchases made by himself, enabled him to circumvallate the whole. Henry also exempted from toll every vessel bringing stone for the church ; gave to Mauritius " all the great fish taken in his precincts, except the tongues;" aud finally secured to him and his successor the tithes of all his venison in Essex. In 1221 the steeple was completed. The subterranean church of St. Faith, anciently called Ecclesia Sancta Fidis in cryptis, was commenced in 1257. It was situated at the west end of Jesus Chapel, under the choir, and which was used as parish church for Paternoster-row, St. Paul's churchyard, part of Ivy-lane, Warwick-lane, Queen's Head court, and other places.

Upon the -suppression of Jesus' Chapel, the parishioners of St. Faith were, in 1551, per mitted to remove into the under-ground church ; and it continued a parochial place of worship till the destruction of the cathedral by the great fire. The undercroft, as these kinds of edifices were named, contained several chantries and monuments. Henry Lacie, st. Paul's cathedral. 9 earl of Lincoln, who died in 1312, formed what was called | the New Work, at the eastern end, in which were the chapels of our Lady and St. Deinstall. In the latter of these was the sepulchre of this nobleman. The chapter-house, adjacent to the south transept, was circular, and supported by four central pillars, of more elegant Gothic than the remainder of the pile. This projected into a most beautiful cloister, two stories in height.

On tbe walls of a cloister on the Dorth side of St. Paul's, called Pardon-church-haugh, was painted the , Machabre, or Dance of Death. It pourtrayed a long train of men, of all classes, from the Pope to the humblest of human beings, each figure with Death for his partner, the pale phantom shaking his remembering-glass. Farther to the west, adjoining the south side, was the parish church of St. Gregory. One of the towers above, ornsu menting the western front, was the bishop's prison, or Lollards' tower; and was, we are told by Pennant, the scene of many a midnight murder. The style of old St. Paul's was a most beautiful Gothic. Over the east end was a superb circular window ; and from the central tower there radiated a lofty and elegant spire. The dimensions of this noble church, as given in 1309, were as follow : — the length, 629 feet: the breadth, 120; the height of the roof of the west part, from the floor, 102; of the tower, 260; of the east part, 188; of the spire, made of wood, covered with lead, 274.

The entire area occupied by the ancient cathedral was three acres and-a-half, one rood and-a-half, and six perches. The nave was sustained by clustered pillars and circular arches, in the style retained by the Normans, after the I conquered Saxons ; the galleries and windows of the transepts were also finished with rounded arches. The screens to the choir, and the chapel of the Virgin Mary, were Gothic; the former was adorned with statues on each side of the door, presented by Sir Paul Pindar. The ancient cathedral, like the present one, was re nowned as the burying-place of the illustrious dead. c ; John of Gaunt, and his first wife, Blanche, were here entombed, a magnificent shrine arising over their ashes, which was destroyed by the barbarous fanatics of Crom well's time. The learned and liberal Dean Colet, who nobly consecrated his large fortune to the erection of St. Paul's School, in honour of the infant Jesus, for the instruction of one hundred and fifty-five scholars; the magnanimous Sir Philip Sidney ; the great Walsingham, who died so poor that his friends were compelled to steal his remains into their last home, lest they should be ar rested by rapacious creditors ; and many other worthies of Britain were enshrined and entombed here.

The monument of Dr. Donne, the wit, the poet, and divine, deserves especial mention. According to Pennant, the dean, not long before his death, attired himself in a shroud, placed his feet on an urn fixed on a board ex actly of his own height, and, shutting his eyes like a departed person, was drawn, in that attitude, by a skilful painter. This sombre piece he kept in his room till the day of his death, the 31st of March, 1631 ; after which it served as a pattern for his tomb. Our sketch of old St. Paul's must not be dismissed without referring to some of the most interesting reminiscences of its history. The high altar glistened with jewels and gold, the pre sents of the numerous worshippers. John, king of France, when almost a voluntary captive in England, upon first making homage to St. Erkenwald's shrine, offered four basins of gold.

On the day of the miraculous conversion of the tutelar saint, the charities were immense, first to the souls, when an mdulgeuce of forty days' pardon was given; and by order of Henry III., 1,500 tapers were placed in the church, and 15,000 poor people fed in the churchyard. The precincts of Old St. Paul's acquired an unenviable notoriety as the resort of thieves and profligates of every description, by whom in the night murders and other crimes were often perpetrated. To remedy tins evil, sr. Paul's cathedral. 11 Edward I. authorized the dean and canons to wall round the whole, and to erect gates which, closing at night, shut out the disorderlies by whom its sanctity had formerly been profaued. On the north-west side of this enclosure was the episcopal palace ; Froissart, in his Chronicles, states, that after the great tournament in Smithfield, upon the occasion of the marriage of King Edward III., that sovereign and his consort remained here.

To this palace the hapless prince, Edward V., was conducted, as he believed, to assume that crown which was wrested from him by the perfidy of his usurping uncle; here also, in 1591, Catherine of Arragon was brought to meet her first husband, Prince Arthur, and on the 14th of November she was united to him in the cathedral. They held their nuptial banquet at the palace, where they sojourned till the king and queen visited them, and conveyed the royal couple by water from Baynard Castle to Westminster. Opposite to the palace were the dean's house, and the mansions of the prebendaries and canons residentiary. The palace has long since disappeared; only in the page of history do the associations which rendered it famous remain. The residences of the chief dignitaries of the cathedral are still found on the same site, their venerable character, it may be, not enhanced by their close contiguity to the haunts of traffic and the monster establishments of rival linendrapers.

For some centuries the old church of St. Paul's was a common thoroughfare; horses and other animals were taken through it ; and like the parks at a later period, it was a spot of assignations, and the lounging place of idle men of the town. This pubbe causeway through the centre of the cathedral, which was unceremoniously used by porters, hucksters and others, who carried their mer chandise through the temple of devotion, to save them selves the trouble of making the circuit of the churchyard, was called St. Paul's Walk, and was an exemplification of all the folbes of Vanity Fair. In front of the cathedral was the celebrated Paul's Cross, situated a little to the east of the entrance to Canon-alley. Here the citizens were accustomed to congregate to appoint their magistrates and to discuss on public affairs.

In subsequent times, the cross was chiefly made available for proclamations and other proceedings, civic and clerical. A pulpit composed of wood and mounted upon steps of stone, and covered with lead, was attached to it, and in the forenoon on Sundays sermons were preached by eminent divines, which were called Paul's Cross sermons. The court, the municipal authorities, and the chief citizens, resorted here. The royal portion of the company were protected from the weather by covered galleries, and a similar shelter was provided for the superior class of people, but the greater proportion of the congregation were exposed to the open air. When the weather was very inclement, the poorer part of the company retreated to the Shrouds, a covered place abutting upon the church wall. In 1483 the beautiful but frail Jane Shore did penance before St. Paul's Cross, by command of the malevolent Gloucester.

At the instigation of the same tyrant, Dr. Shaw and an Augustine friar named Pinke declared from this pulpit, that the children of Edward IV. were illegitimate, and had no claim to the throne. Hollinshed and other old English chroniclers state that Pinke lost his voice in the middle of the sermon, and was compelled to come down, and that Shaw, afterwards struck with remorse and universally contemned, died of a broken heart. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, pious and eloquent ministers were appointed to promulgate from this Cross the doctrines of the reformed reHgion, and the invalidity of papal influence; the first sermon was delivered on April 9, 1559 ; and here that envious and revengeful queen tarnished in perpetuity her fame, by employing venal orators to traduce the memory of her once-beloved Essex, who fell the victim of her jealousy and of her vanity.

It would exceed our limits to dwell further upon the events of national importance by which this once famous structure was distinguished. The cathedral was greatly damaged in 1561, when its noble spire was entirely consumed ; some say, by light ning, but others, with more probability, report that it was owing to the carelessness of a plumber employed in repairing the spire, and who left a pan of coals burning near some wood-work, during his absence at dinner, by which this noble ornament was burnt to ashes, and the church otherwise injured. The sacred edifice was re stored, but it was no longer graced by a spire. In 1620 Inigo Jones received the commands of James I. to repair the church; nothing, however, was done till the year 1633, when the first stone was laid by Archbishop Laud, and the fourth by Jones.

This architect placed at the west end a portico of the Corinthian order, and to the ends of the two transepts he attached Gothic fronts. A great fire which desolated London, in 1666, swept away in its ravages the ancient cathedral of St. Paul's, and the erection of a new church w?s entrusted to Sir Christopher Wren, the surveyor-general of his Ma jesty's works. Two designs, on the second of which Sir Christopher set a high value, were rejected by arbiters of questionable taste, but the third, the plan of the present magnificent temple was adopted. While Wren was adjusting the dimensions of the dome, he ordered a labourer to bring him a flat stone to be laid as a direction to the masons. The man brought by chance a fragment of a gravestone on which the word Resurgam was inscribed. This suggested to Sir Christopher the idea of the phrenix, which he placed on the south portico with that word cut beneath.

The first stone of St. Paul's cathedral was laid on June 21st, 1675 ; and the building was completed by him in 1710, in which year the last stone of the lantern on the cupola was laid by Mr. Christopher Wren, the son of the architect ; but the whole decorations were not till 1723. Although the church occupied in its construction more than thirty-five years, it was commenced and finished by one architect, and under one prelate, Henry Compton, Bishop of London. Its entire cost was one million two hundred thousand pounds, part of which was defrayed by a duty on coal. In digging the foundations Sir Christopher found many ivory and wooden pins, by which it is supposed the shrouds of the ancient Britons were fastened. Over these were the graves of the Saxons lined with chalk-stones, or consisting of stones hollowed out ; and lower down he found Roman urns and other relics.

The foundation of the original church was on a layer of hard and close pot earth. Wren, on advancing farther, only met -with loose sand; at length he reached water and sand mixed with periwinkles and other sea-shells ; and by boring came at last to the beach, and under that the natural hard clay, proving that the sea had once flowed over the site now occupied by our national cathedral. The church being completed in the reign of Anne, tbe statue of that sovereign in white marble, the work of Francis Bird, was placed at the western entrance, facing Ludgate-hill. At tbe base of the statue are the figures of Britain, France, Ireland, and America, over all of which countries the English monarch long held a titular sway. Mr. Strong was the principal mason employed, and he as well as Wren lived to witness the completion of this stately pile ; and Cibber, Gibbons, Bird, and others, were principally engaged on the decorations of the cathedral.

Divine service was first celebrated in the new church in 1696, the choir being opened on the 2nd of December in that year, when that eminent prelate, Gilbert Burnet, officiated, William III. and his court being present, the day being famous in the annals of history as one of pub- He thanksgiving for the peace of Ryswick. The Morning Prayer Chapel on the north-west side of the cathedral, was opened for divine service on the 1st of February, 1699. In 1718, at the advanced age of ninety, Wren was superseded in his office (which he had held for fifty years) by an obscure person named Benson, whose incapacity soon became so evident that his appointment was almost immediately followed by his dismissal. When Sir Chris topher died in the plenitude of years and fame, his remains were honourably interred iu the cathedral.

A Latin inscription (which we Anglicize) on a marble slab under the organ, near the choir, thus perpetuates the memory of the great architect : — • " Underneath rests Sir Christopher Wren, the builder of this Church and this City ; who lived beyond ninety years ; not for him self, but for the public good. " Reader! if you seek his monument — Look Around .'" The body of the great architect reposes below in the south aisle of the crypt on the spot said to be that over which the high altar of old St. Paul's stood. The grave is covered with a flat stone sunk into the pavement, and bearing this inscription : — " Here lieth Sir Christopher Wren, Knight, the Builder of this Cathedral Church of St. Paul, who died iu the year of our Lord 1 7 23, and of his age 91." Adjacent are the tombs of his sister, daughter, and daughter-in-law.

The cathedral is built of Portland stone, in the shape of a cross. Over the space where the fines traverse each other is a superb dome, on the summit of which is a beautiful lantern, encompassed by a balcony. The lantern is surmounted by a ball and a cross. There are three porticoes to the church; one facing the west, and the two others in a north and south direction. The western portico is composed of twelve lofty Corinthian columns, above which are eight others of the composite order, sus taining a grand pediment, on which are sculptured the leading events of the fife of St. Paul. The grand portico occupies an elevated base, reached by a flight of twenty two steps of black marble. Over the whole are two cam panile towers, the north one serving as the belfry, and the south one enclosing the clock.

The portico at tbe nor thern entrance consists of a dome, supported by six Corinthian columns, with an ascent of twelve circular TALLIS'S ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; steps of black marble. The pediment over the dome is adorned with the royal arms, regalia, and other ornaments. The southern portico is similar, having for its entablature a phœnix by Cibber. The circumstances which led Wren to adopt this insignium, we have already referred to. The interior of this edifice is constructed after the plan of the ancient cathedrals; that of a long cross, having a nave, choir, transepts, and side aisles ; but in place of the lofty tower, the dome rises in this building in elevated grand e\ir from the central intersection. The piers and arches which divide the nave from the side aisles are ornamented with columns and pilasters of the Corinthian and composite order, and are further adorned with shields, festoons, chaplets, and other ornaments.